{"id":17972,"date":"2018-06-28T00:53:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T16:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=17972"},"modified":"2018-06-28T16:54:08","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T08:54:08","slug":"hong-kong-shock-and-anger-at-six-year-jail-sentence-for-edward-leung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Mongkok riot\u2019 trials reveal a political agenda to deter the younger generation from resisting repression\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dikang, Socialist Action<\/p>\n

Hong Kongers young and old have been shocked\u00a0and outraged\u00a0by the six-year jail sentence served on former localist activist Edward Leung Tin-kei. Leung\u2019s eight co-defendants at the \u2018Mongkok riot\u2019 trial on June 11 also received similarly harsh sentences.\u00a0Lo Kin-man, who like Leung was convicted of rioting, was jailed for seven years.<\/p>\n

These sentences are unprecedented. They are in many instances more severe than those served on leaders of the 1967 Hong Kong riots, in which 51 people were killed and more than 1,000 bombs were exploded.<\/p>\n

Socialist Action has never advocated or supported rioting as a method of political struggle. But in common with most ordinary people we do not accept the government\u2019s version of what happened in Mongkok. The government has repeatedly refused a commission of enquiry into what happened, as was the case after the 1956 and 1967 riots.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Edward Leung Tin-kei sentenced to 6 years in jail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A riot \u201cis the language of the unheard\u201d to quote Martin Luther King. It usually signifies that organised and collective struggle \u2013 the antithesis of a riot \u2013 have for one reason or another been defeated or derailed.<\/p>\n

The term \u2018riot\u2019 was affixed to the unrest of Lunar New Year 2016 by former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. This was part of his regime\u2019s political vendetta against the democracy movement. Specifically, the government sought to exploit the Mongkok events to crush the localists (Hong Kong nationalists), knowing this could also be used to attack the opposition as a whole.\u00a0Top Beijing officials went even further (naturally), saying the Mongkok disturbances were \u201cterrorism\u201d. Leung Chun-ying wrote a venomous post on Facebook at the time that in other countries the police would have shot to kill.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the localists made themselves an easy target for government repression. This is because of their loose, poorly organised character and lack of a real social base (there is a big difference between online rage on social media\u00a0and real numbers prepared to join an organised movement).<\/p>\n

Also, the political hostility towards others such as ordinary mainlanders (racism) and the wider democracy movement (sectarianism), which is a feature of all the main localist groupings, leads to their isolation. It is perhaps not accidental that Edward Leung, in preparing his defence and attempting to mobilise opinion in the hope of getting a more lenient sentence,\u00a0has to some extent distanced himself from localism and turned to the pan-democrats for support.<\/p>\n

Read more \u27b5 A discussion on Hong Kong\u2019s future<\/a><\/h4>\n

While localist ideas are still widespread among young people and indeed can grow as a result of the endless political crimes of the pro-Beijing capitalist establishment, localism is likely to remain an unorganised and \u201cleaderless\u201d trend rather than a real threat to the dictatorship.<\/p>\n

While Socialist Action opposes the political ideas and methods of the localists, we have no hesitation in denouncing the \u2018Mongkok riot\u2019 trials and the savagery of the sentences as a travesty of justice.<\/p>\n

The trials are being used by the government to crush not only localism,\u00a0but to\u00a0intimidate\u00a0the younger generation as a whole.\u00a0This is linked to the new law criminalising\u00a0\u201cdisrespect\u201d\u00a0of China\u2019s national anthem and the Education Department\u2019s\u00a0revival in another\u00a0form of its school brainwashing curriculum.\u00a0The government\u2019s\u00a0message is that \u201cradicalism\u201d\u00a0will be punished and that resistance to the authoritarian system is impossible. This is the method of autocratic regimes everywhere, but it will not succeed.<\/p>\n

\"\"
8 February 2016. Youth in Mongkok clashed with police in what became known as the Mongkok riot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Mongkok riot\u2019 trials: A travesty of justice<\/h3>\n

The \u2018Mongkok riot\u2019 trials have produced some of the most severe sentences ever handed out by Hong Kong courts relative to the severity of the offences.<\/p>\n

Unlike in the riots of 1956 and 1967, nobody was killed in Mongkok. There were no cases of looting nor was there significant destruction to property. All the anger was focused on the police. This can only be understood against the background of the Umbrella Revolution, 18 months earlier, with the police under government orders to play a more openly political and aggressive role.<\/p>\n

So far 25 people have been found guilty for their part in the Mongkok unrest. The combined prison sentence for these 25 defendants is a staggering 71 years. Of the 18 found guilty of the charge of \u2018riot\u2019 the average sentence is three years and 8 months. In the 1956 riots, in which 59 people died, the maximum sentence for \u2018riot\u2019 was two years.<\/p>\n

Mo Jia-tao, who was sent to prison for 4 years and three months at his trial in May, was 17-years of age and therefore a minor at the time he was arrested. Another defendant, an autistic man, received a sentence of two years and four months against the advice of his probation officers.<\/p>\n

Few outside the hardcore pro-Beijing establishment believe Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor\u2019s statement that there are \u201cabsolutely no political factors\u201d involved in these trials and the six-year sentence for Edward Leung. These trials are part of a campaign \u2013 dictated from Beijing \u2013 to strike hard at the entire democracy struggle.<\/p>\n

Like all repressive systems, these measures will ultimately backfire on their authors. The role of the state in Hong Kong, the police, courts, the \u2018parliament\u2019 (if we can call it that)\u00a0and nominally \u2018impartial\u2019 election officials, are being exposed as tools of a brutal and corrupt regime. The public perception of the police was permanently damaged by the Umbrella Revolution, when police tactics reached an unprecedented level of thuggery and illegality.<\/p>\n

In the same way, the blatant use of the law courts against democracy activists, as well as the disproportionately severe punishments for Edward Leung and his co-defendants, is producing similar anger and loss of any faith in the judicial system especially among youth.<\/p>\n

These historically significant developments must be highlighted as part of the necessary rebuilding of a mass democracy struggle. This struggle needs a socialist approach to succeed \u2013 a revolutionary approach \u2013 showing that the entire capitalist system and its state is undemocratic and corrupt. Today\u2019s repression can only be defeated not by \u2018reforms\u2019 and tinkering with the system, but by sweeping it away once and for all.<\/p>\n

Read more \u27b5 Pan-democrats\u2019 by-election loss \u2013 what does it mean for the democracy struggle?<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Mongkok riot\u2019 trials reveal a political agenda to deter the younger generation from resisting repression\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":17973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[133,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hong-kong","8":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\nHong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung - China Worker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2018Mongkok riot\u2019 trials reveal a political agenda to deter the younger generation from resisting repression\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Worker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SocialistAction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-27T16:53:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-06-28T08:54:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media1.chinaworker.info\/2018\/06\/Edward-L-e1530118189136.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"309\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Hong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-27T16:53:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-28T08:54:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1069,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media1.chinaworker.info\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/Edward-L-e1530118189136.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Hong Kong\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/\",\"name\":\"Hong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung - China Worker\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media1.chinaworker.info\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/Edward-L-e1530118189136.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-27T16:53:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-28T08:54:08+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media1.chinaworker.info\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/Edward-L-e1530118189136.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media1.chinaworker.info\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/Edward-L-e1530118189136.jpg\",\"width\":550,\"height\":309,\"caption\":\"Edward Leung Tin-kei sentenced to 6 years in jail.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/28\\\/17972\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\u9996\u9801\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"\u793e\u6703\u4e3b\u7fa9\u884c\u52d5\",\"description\":\"Solidarity, Struggle, Socialism\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Chinaworker.info\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media1.chinaworker.info\\\/2021\\\/04\\\/logo-sa.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/media1.chinaworker.info\\\/2021\\\/04\\\/logo-sa.png\",\"width\":120,\"height\":126,\"caption\":\"Chinaworker.info\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/SocialistAction\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/socialistactionhk\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/chinaworker.info\\\/en\\\/author\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung - China Worker","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung - China Worker","og_description":"\u2018Mongkok riot\u2019 trials reveal a political agenda to deter the younger generation from resisting repression\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/","og_site_name":"China Worker","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SocialistAction","article_published_time":"2018-06-27T16:53:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-06-28T08:54:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":550,"height":309,"url":"https:\/\/media1.chinaworker.info\/2018\/06\/Edward-L-e1530118189136.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Hong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung","datePublished":"2018-06-27T16:53:51+00:00","dateModified":"2018-06-28T08:54:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/"},"wordCount":1069,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media1.chinaworker.info\/2018\/06\/Edward-L-e1530118189136.jpg","articleSection":["Hong Kong","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/","url":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/","name":"Hong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung - China Worker","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media1.chinaworker.info\/2018\/06\/Edward-L-e1530118189136.jpg","datePublished":"2018-06-27T16:53:51+00:00","dateModified":"2018-06-28T08:54:08+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/media1.chinaworker.info\/2018\/06\/Edward-L-e1530118189136.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media1.chinaworker.info\/2018\/06\/Edward-L-e1530118189136.jpg","width":550,"height":309,"caption":"Edward Leung Tin-kei sentenced to 6 years in jail."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2018\/06\/28\/17972\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u9996\u9801","item":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hong Kong: Shock and anger at six-year jail sentence for Edward Leung"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/","name":"\u793e\u6703\u4e3b\u7fa9\u884c\u52d5","description":"Solidarity, Struggle, Socialism","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/#organization","name":"Chinaworker.info","url":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/media1.chinaworker.info\/2021\/04\/logo-sa.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media1.chinaworker.info\/2021\/04\/logo-sa.png","width":120,"height":126,"caption":"Chinaworker.info"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SocialistAction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/socialistactionhk\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}